Owner/ founder Justin Powers opens up for a peek behind the curtain at Bull Cycles...

History

Growing up in downtown Chicago gave me lots of opportunity to soak up art and culture at a young age, At eighteen, i moved to Arizona and lived in the stark contrast of the desert where motorcycles soon became my new passion, after being released from service, i traveled the country, from Vegas, new Orleans, New york to Miami and everywhere in between honing my skills. I have since settled down with my family in the burbs of Chicago almost 20 years later.

I have been in fabrication over 15 years, From high end custom cars, custom Audio video/electronics, To working heavily with sheet metal, welding, machining and CAD design all over the country it’s been a cool ride so far.

How and why?

"My life heavily revolved around creative outlets in one form of art or another. After being in the work force for a while, I had to risk it all and open shop to get back to my need to create on my own once again.

We are known for being different and going down our own path. I love combining the beauty of machined parts and different metals in their natural raw form.

My customers appreciate the use of raw materials and the somewhat minimalist styling, along with the attention to detail.

My passion comes from creating new parts or ideas, and being able to get them from a 2d drawing to a living breathing object in front of me. It’s always a trip to see a concept drawing come to life in 3d... Then take a ride on it... crazy!"

Hiding in plain sight

We rarely show our bikes, and don’t enter any shows; the need for approval was never there. I’m sure it would help on the business end, and is inevitable. But for me it comes down to what i want to build, then finding that one person that just has to have it. It’s serendipitous in the fact that you always meet like-minded individuals, and it keeps me in my creative bubble where i like to be.

Plays well with others?

I’m admittedly a control freak. From start to finished project, the smallest details are often micro managed when building a custom project. Nothing is usually good enough. I believe perfection is obtainable... And it’s around every corner and that keeps pushing me to go farther. It drives others around me a bit crazy however. It’s also pretty time consuming, finding me staring at something for an hour to understand why it won’t fit in my universe is a common occurrence... But hey we all have issues right?

Off the clock

Flying has always been in the back of my mind... in one form or another... Funny story... i actually wanted to join the Air force to fly planes. So off to the AF recruiter’s office i went. A Sign on the door said "out to lunch back soon". So waiting around i stumbled into the marine recruiter’s office. “We have planes”, they said... i never got to fly, but put plenty of miles in some boots. I should have read into the fact that the Air force GETS to go to lunch. So sooner than later you will probably see some type of flying machine adorned with the BULL logo